In the Fall of 1969, Rick Ranson and John Van Landeghem, both barely out of high school, took on the might of the Red and Mississippi Rivers to paddle a canoe from Winnipeg, Manitoba, to New Orleans, Louisiana. Combining high drama with hilarity, Ranson tells how the duo, ducked bullets in St. Louis, avoided a whirlpool, worked on a Mississippi tow boat, sailed a yacht through a barge congested Cairo, IL, and spent a few days in the Fargo City Jail, while meeting an eclectic array of unforgettable characters. Paddling South tells the incredible tale of how they survived the three month trip on the often treacherous rivers, beset by snow storms, hurricanes, monstrous waves, and unseen dams.

A kayak may seem an unlikely place for adventure, but that's exactly what you'll find in "Paddling in Paradise." Author Alison Hughes has created the definitive guide to sea kayaking in Atlantic Canada. Whether she is describing the exhilaration of experiencing the world's highest tides in the Bay of Fundy, or the pure beauty of the coast of Cape Breton, Hughes shares her deep and genuine conviction that life is only truly lived with paddle in hand.

In "Paddling in Paradise," Alison Hughes describes eight multi-day trips off the coasts of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland, ranging from beautiful nature paddles that neophytes will dream about for the rest of their lives to adventures that will test the mettle of experienced sea kayakers and their guides. Photos and a map enhance each description, and each ends with a Fact File that includes contact information for outfitters, a list of special preparations or equipment, advice for travelling to nearby cities, detailed directions to put-in points, and suggestions for whale watching, cycling, and other activities that visiting kayakers would enjoy. "Paddling in Paradise" also includes an introduction to the region and the unique appeal of sea kayaking as well as a chapter on trip planning, safety, and all aspects of camping along the shore.

29 STORIES THAT ILLUSTRATE WHAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN SAFETY IS LEFT ON SHORESea Kayaker's Deep Trouble was a bestselling warning to kayakers: Do not let ignorance or arrogance get you hurt or even killed. Thousands heeded Deep Trouble's tales of tragedy; but even with the benefits of evolving technology and more safety options, kayakers still fall prey to human error. To renew the cautiousattitude of seasoned paddlers and to instill safe practices in kayaking newbies, Sea Kayaker's More Deep Trouble presents more stories of kayaking trials, rescues, and tragedy. In these 29 stories collected from Sea Kayaker magazine, survivors and witnesses tell of their experiences with the dangers and risks of kayaking. You will feel the cold rush of water when paddlers fall in, the panic they feel when they do not know how to rescue themselves, and the anxiousness of loved ones waiting to hear any news. You will learn how whale watching could cost you your life, how life-saving electronics are only as good as the batteries you have in them, and how a float plan can initiate a timely search and rescue. End-of-story Lessons Learned summaries suggest what to do if you find yourself in similar unfortunate situations. Read these tales, understand the lessons learned in these incidents, and respect the advice given as you take your next kayaking adventure. This tome of danger and survival may ultimately save your life.

• 2003 National Outdoor Book Award Winner
• Step-by-step photos on correct form and essential strokes
• Illustrated guide to river maneuvers plus information on gear, safety, choosing a canoe

This illustrated guide on the essential skills of canoeing should be required reading for anyone getting into the sport. A section on the mechanics of good paddling is followed by a catalog of the most important strokes, each illustrated in sequential photos, with concise text on the key points. Essential river maneuvers--eddy turns, peel-outs, and ferries--are demonstrated by the Olympic paddling team of Wayne Dickert and Horace Holden, Jr.

Within about seventy-five miles of downtown Houston, some 1,500 miles of rivers, creeks, lakes, bayous, and bays await discovery. "Canoeing and Kayaking Houston Waterways," by longtime paddler Natalie Wiest, is the perfect companion for anyone who wants to experience Houston's well-watered landscape from the seat of a kayak or canoe.

Before introducing readers to the quiet, green world that lies within and around the heart of the city, Wiest gives some pointers on water safety (including swimming and boating); on weather, flood stages, and legal access; and on an often unseen but always present paddling companion--alligators. She also provides a gear checklist for a day trip, a brief guide to boats and paddles, and a "sampler" list of easy places to paddle for true beginners.

Presented in nine chapters, each organized around a river system or coastal basin and comprising a "suite" of paddling trips, the excursions described by Wiest offer a general description of the destination, directions (both driving and paddling), and details about the paddling conditions and access sites, which are all publicly owned or managed. Each chapter lists mileages, USGS gauging station numbers, and GIS locations when applicable. Also including ninety color photos and more than thirty detailed maps, "Canoeing and Kayaking Houston Waterways" offers both novice and experienced paddlers a helpful and enjoyable reference for experiencing nature at water level, in and around Houston.

"Canoeing and Kayaking New York" includes descriptions of 50 of the best trips on New York's dozens of rivers. Along with runs for both experienced paddlers and novices and profiles for both over-nighters and short, round-trip day paddles, this book contains all the information necessary for a safe, enjoyable trip. Kevin Stiegelmaier combines information about tides, river gauges, GPS waypoints, and maps with personal anecdotes, historical trivia, and descriptions of local plants and animals, sprinkled with a touch of humor.

A veteran paddling guide offers her favorite routes and insights gleaned from years of experience. Spanning the length of the coastal plain, this guide includes the Chesapeake's tidal tributaries, the eastern shore, and the blackwater cypress swamps of the south. Each route description goes beyond access points and paddling notes to include estuarine ecology, social and natural history, and sidebars covering a variety of topics from gear to wildlife sightings to local highlights. Beginning and experienced kayakers will appreciate the depth of information, including geographical, wind, weather, tidal, and safety issues. A brief introduction to other area trips effectively doubles the number of trip locations to pursue.

The region from the southernmost point of the Florida peninsula, stretching south and west to the Dry Tortugas National Park, is one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in the continental United States, and there's no better way to explore it than by kayak. Here the freshwater temperate latitudes meld with a tropical marine environment to create unique paddling opportunities. In the nearshore waters, secret mangrove tunnels, unending beds of turtle grass, and colorful sponge flats contrast with the vibrant coral-studded waters found offshore. Bill Keogh is your guide to this paddler's paradise. Each trip in this new guide includes a chart, route suggestions, information on distance, tides, and winds, and safety tips. You'll also find information on the wildlife, habitats, and ecosystems that will be encountered, as well as historical and natural features of the area. 30 black & white photographs, index.

This step-by-step guide to building a lashed-frame, fabriccovered sea kayak is both a means to a sleek, fast, universally admired boat and an excellent introduction to woodworking and boatbuilding for hobbyists. The Inuit design scales up or down to fit the paddler and can be built using $150 worth of hardware-store materials, a few basic tools, and a minimal investment of time. Also included: plans for a low-volume version designed for Eskimo rolling; an especially stable version for children; and discussions of kayaking equipment, paddling, and rolling techniques.

Ken Weber's guide, in print for more than 20 years, has now been completely revised and expanded. Chapters include day trips on flatwater, selected whitewater runs, and suggestions for overnight trips with 30 trips in all, there's something here for every level of paddler. Each chapter includes information on put-ins and take-outs, distance, water conditions, dams and rapids, portages, what time of year to paddle, and what you'll see along the way. A detailed map and a handy mileage chart for each river make planning easy. New trips in this edition include: In Massachusetts: the Housatonic, Westfield, Deerfield, Blackstone, Taunton, and Nemasket Rivers In Rhode Island: the Pawtuxet River In Connecticut: the Upper Quinebaug and Pachaug Rivers The first edition of this book was titled Canoeing Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. 30 trips in all, 7 new for this edition. All new maps and photographs. Suitable for both canoes and kayaks.

A lavishly illustrated, user-friendly guide for novices and experienced boat builders alike, The Canoe Shop provides plans and building instructions for three graceful and rugged touring canoes—a 12-foot double-paddle canoe, a 14-foot solo canoe, and a 16-foot tandem boat—that virtually anyone can build directly from the book.


Following the same critically acclaimed format found in his classic, The New Kayak Shop, leading North American boat designer Chris Kulczycki walks readers through the entire building process for each boat. One standout feature of The Canoe Shop is a revolutionary, simplified approach to lapstrake construction which makes this traditional technique—considered by many to be the finest method of wooden boat construction—available to amateurs for the first time.

- Features three original designs from one of the most respected small-boat designers
- Contains dozens of illustrations and step-by-step building instructions

This thorough, basic handbook provides information on all aspects of the ever-popular sport of canoeing; choosing the right boat, paddles, and gear; transporting and launching a canoe; learning the basic strokes; planning canoe trips, and more. Illustrated.

Written by the American canoe Association and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Introduction to Paddling is an easy-to-understand guide to flatwater and river paddling. Based on an earlier work by the Ohio DNR, Flat-water Paddler, this amply illustrated book tells beginning paddlers everything they need to know, from appropriate clothing to the parts of the boat, from correct strokes to proper safety concerns. Good for instructors and those who like to teach themselves, this book is an important resource for those who like to paddle or want to start.

Resonant, reflective, a legacy of the Canadian canoeing experience Canexus: The Canoe in Canadian Culture is a first. "This book is cause for celebration," says Kanawa Canoe Museum founder Kirk Wipper, "because of the canoe, and because it is created by writers who are, themselves, enthusiastic paddlers."

From "Canoe Sport" to "Canoe Irony" and finding "Motives for Mr. Canoehead," Canexus opens doors to the primitive and explores the canoeing experience from an exciting variety of perspectives.

Travel with some of Canada's best known canoeists to the mysterious Northwest Coast of BC, across constitutional waves on Meech Lake and into a landscape of the Canadian imagination. Hear great canoe stories, bake bannock, weather storms, ponder canoeing and gender roles. For all kinds of paddlers, and lovers of adventure and wilderness, Canexus gives the canoe its rightful place of prominence in Canadian culture.

With contributions by E.Y. Arima, Philip Chester, C.E.S. Franks, Shelagh Grant, Bob Henderson, Bruce Hodgins, Gwyneth Hoyle, William C. James, C. Fred Johnston, George Luste, Roderick A. Macdonald, Kenneth G. Roberts and Kirk Wipper.

"The writers in Canexus bring different perspectives & abilities to these essays, but all of them reinforce the idea of the canoe as an ancient, echoing symbol; one that can illuminate our place in the north like no other." M.T. Kelly, Winner of the Governor General's Award for Literature

"An intelligent person's guide to the place of the canoe in the Canadian culture and psyche...exciting, like fast white water and spray in your face..." Fred Bodsworth"

In 1700, a young man named John Lawson left London and landed in Charleston, South Carolina, hoping to make a name for himself. For reasons unknown, he soon undertook a two-month journey through the still-mysterious Carolina backcountry. His travels yielded A New Voyage to Carolina in 1709, one of the most significant early American travel narratives, rich with observations about the region's environment and Indigenous people. Lawson later helped found North Carolina's first two cities, Bath and New Bern; became the colonial surveyor general; contributed specimens to what is now the British Museum; and was killed as the first casualty of the Tuscarora War. Yet despite his great contributions and remarkable history, Lawson is little remembered, even in the Carolinas he documented. In 2014, Scott Huler made a surprising decision: to leave home and family for his own journey by foot and canoe, faithfully retracing Lawson's route through the Carolinas. This is the chronicle of that unlikely voyage, revealing what it's like to rediscover your own home. Combining a traveler's curiosity, a naturalist's keen observation, and a writer's wit, Huler draws our attention to people and places we might pass regularly but never really see. What he finds are surprising parallels between Lawson's time and our own, with the locals and their world poised along a knife-edge of change between a past they can't forget and a future they can't quite envision.

This new guide features saltwater paddling tours in the northern and central 10,000 Islands, as well as a handful of freshwater tours in the Big Cypress Swamp. Trips emanate out of multiple put-ins and take-outs, including Rookery Bay Estuarine Reserve (Marco Island), Goodland, Port of the Islands, Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, Everglades City, and Big Cypress National Preserve. Each trip described in this new guide will include information on distance, difficulty, recommended charts, and navigational features, as well as discussing winds, tides, and safety issues. The author also discusses natural and historical features, estuarine and mangrove ecology, and local wildlife. Finally, he provides information on equipment, outfitters, supplies, rentals, and recommendations for low-impact paddling. 35 black & white photographs, index.

"Eastern Arctic Kayaks" is the product of years of kayak study by two of the world's experts. Combining analyses of form and function with historical background and illustrations of kayaking techniques, this volume is a storehouse of information for recreational kayakers and scholarly readers alike.
Drawing from his vast practical experience and extensive study of museum specimens, John D. Heath offers a comprehensive overview of the evolution and construction of Greenland kayaks supplemented with an illustrated series of rolling and sculling techniques. E. Arima examines kayaks of the eastern Canadian Arctic, covering woodworking tools, construction techniques, and the treatment of skins for the kayak cover.
Core chapters on Greenland and eastern Canada are accompanied by essential articles by Greg Stamer on the use of the Greenland paddle and two studies of kayaks in European museums by Harvey Golden and Hugh Collings. A valuable excerpt from John Brand's "Little Kayak Book" series makes this British publication available to American readers for the first time.
Lavishly illustrated with drawings and historic photographs, "Eastern Arctic Kayaks" is a landmark study in the history of watercraft--an essential resource for recreational kayakers and maritime historians and for anyone interested in northern Native material culture.

Sea kayaking is booming, and Maine, with more than 3,000 miles of rugged coastline, is the indisputable mecca of the sport in the eastern United States. Thousands of exceptionally beautiful islands, peninsulas and bays offer paddling conditions ranging from very protected to extremely exposed. There are areas safe enough for beginners, and challenging enough for skilled paddlers. A complete guide to the coast from Kittery to Cobscook to anyone who dips a paddle in Maine's coastal waters. Although it is specifically designed for day-trippers, experienced paddlers can also use this guide to put together multi-day expeditions. More than 50 sections of the Maine coast are described. each chapter includes suggested trips, where to find launch access, how to read tides and currents, nautical chart and map references, safety considerations and danger zones, key points of interest, and information on bird and sea life. Miller also includes clear guidelines on "leave no trace" paddling - how to avoid disturbing nesting birds, endangered wildlife, and fragile shoreline vegetation - as well as where to go to find all this natural beauty.

Twenty-five of the most spectacular coastlines spanning the seven seas from the Northwest Territories to Baja, from the Great Barrier Reef to the Everglades, from the Greek Isles to Tierra del Fuego, from the Red Sea to Fiji. These are just a few of the prime waters author, naturalist, and sea-kayaking guide Jonathan Hanson has explored over fifteen years. Like no other adventure sport, sea kayaking takes you to secret places rarely seen by humans, though often teeming with wildlife. Readers will learn how to see powerful orcas off the coast of British Columbia, dolphins racing across the Sea of Cortez off Baja, beluga whales cruising the Arctic Ocean, gray seals and puffins sharing the cliffs of Scotland s Hebrides."

A fully illustrated introduction to selecting a kayak, first strokes, advanced turning, recoveries and rescues, open-water techniques, and more.

It was as daring an adventure as has been made in modern times. For the first time, three men were going to kayak the 800-kilometer length of the Antarctic Peninsula.
The peninsula is a finger of land jutting north from the northwestern corner of the ice shelf. It is there that the swells of the Southern Ocean, with a world to gain speed, meet the ice and rock of the coldest continent. Temperatures reach zero at their highest. Icebergs bigger than ships lie in wait. Brash ice-smaller chunks-can fill a bay and completely cut off access to shore. The Antarctic wind-the katabatic-is notoriously brutal, and can go from zero to gale force in an hour.
Here is the tale of the journey-undertaken by three New Zealanders-and what they found on the edge of 14 million kilometers of ice and rock. They were paddling within sight of the epic landings of the sealing captains of the nineteenth century, and their story is here, too, along with notes on many of the greatest explorers of the frozen south.
From the first day, when they attempt to make a midnight camp in the middle of a penguin rookery, to the grueling final hours, this is a rare adventure, told with wit and perception-a new classic of the genre.